Labor Day Weekend recap pt 2

After a quick lunch of a granola bar, Gatorade and a burger from the concession stand, it was time to go jumping.  The stadium round, honestly, looked uglier than I wanted but she went clear.  The course looked very easy but was full of 90 degree bends and bending lines.  Tricky!  They didn't trip Mia up even once but for whatever reason I am having issues picking a distance again and so Mia was meeting fences pretty close.  In warmup she knocked a fence down but then picked up her toes even when I buried her into the fence.  SMH.  That said, my position was still good.  So there is that little win.  You fix one problem, another pops up.  Sigh.

It was kinda amusing, it looked like they were going out of order and a rider said they just got on "the list".  Okay, no worries, I will put myself on the list too.  I walked over and said I was ready whenever and they said "Okay, have fun!"  Wait, now?!  Uh, okay.  Haha!  Yes, I was ready, I just didn't expect to go RIGHT NOW.  Sadly all video was taken by an 11 yr old and has that kind of quality so no video is being shared.  Unless, of course, you want to take a couple hits of Dramamine first?  LOL!  Even with some video stabilization it is very jerky and difficult to watch.

We went straight from stadium down to XC.  I really like this format as Stadium acts as a terrific warmup and really reduces the wait time for a short, one day show.  I expected to have a wait when I got there but one person left the start box as I walked up and I was the only other one there so after a short wait, off we went.

Fence 1 was a fairly big log, Mia didn't drag me to it so I bopped her with the crop.  I don't think she needed it, and she didn't, but I wanted her to drag me to fences.  Lol, I got my wish!  Up a big hill to fence 2, it was on the top of a hill and at an angle for a sharp turn at the top of the hill.  Mia couldn't have cared any less about it.  Over we went at an angle instead of changing her course.  I made her trot down the hill because the grass was longer and I didn't want her to slip.  Fence 3 and 4 were inconsequential.  The path to fence 5 had a drop bank and it LOOKED like we could have done it based on the flag, but it wasn't listed for BN and I didn't want to chance an elimination for jumping a harder jump so we went around it.  Fence 5 was an easy bank up, Mia likes banks.  6 was the ditch and Mia just bopped along as it is NBD anymore.  Ditches, we have made them our bitches!!  Fence 7 I met at a really bad distance (damn distances again) so it wasn't pretty, and I even considered falling off, but stayed on and clear.  I need to fix this, this is ridiculous.

Fence 8 she jumped beautifully, as was 9.  Fence 10 was through water and I KNEW we could jump up a bank out of water if we wanted.  So we did.  11 was up a hill, around to 12.  12 actually looked really intimidating from a distance due to how it is set up, it was just an oxer but parallel to a hill.  So one side was MUCH taller than the other side.  Mia didn't even blink at it.  Concern was unwarranted.  The final jump was just an easy coup and Mia was hunting for the next fence.  HA!  Even after we dropped to a walk she was looking for jumps.  The course rode in only 3 minutes, it wasn't even being timed.  It was a really short course but it amused me that Mia was looking for more fences.  She was ready to go!  By the time we got back to the trailer she had recovered in her breathing and had barely broke a sweat.  Fitness for the win!

Water jumps are NBD

We then waited for results.  And waited.  They didn't even post dressage scores until after XC was done but finally we ended up 4th of 8.  Middle of the pack, mostly I was happy with our dressage score of 33.75 despite the wrong bit.  I think we are going to try for ONE more show this year.  We are planning on hauling out for XC schooling this weekend again, we are certainly not just hanging out!